Prayer. A beautiful thing.

Today I had a wonderful experience with prayer. This morning I hopped on the computer needing to access some information I had put onto my little travel drive I carry around. Usually it is always in my purse in a pocket next to my chap stick... today that was not the case.

I could not find it ANYWHERE! To me this felt like I was losing memories from the last year of my life. All of my saved pictures from my mission were on this and a ton of documents from studies and letters I had received were there as well. My heart sank, and it sank fast! 

I ran to my locker here at the Visitor' Center and looked through all my stuff. No travel drive. I checked both computer rooms and all of the computers. No travel drive. It was so heart wrenching.

I tried to put it out of my mind and continue on with my day thinking it would show up eventually.

A couple hours later I found myself back at the Visitors' Center again needing my travel drive. In our back room a few missionaries were studying and I asked if they had seen it. One missionary, Sister Hamstead, explained how she too lost something super important this day; her debit card! She suggested that we all kneel in prayer and ask for the Lord's help. A beautiful prayer was said by Sister Avanesjan and we continued to work. 

About 2 minutes later I was once again in one of the computer rooms searching for another missionary. As I talked with them I asked if they had seen my little drive. Sister Horrutiner looked at the computer (which happened to be the VERY SAME ONE I had used this morning when I found my drive missing) and pulled a drive out and said "is it this one?" 

IT WAS FOUND! 

I know lost things are always found...well normally... but what really amazed me was how quick it was found after a prayer was offered in faith. 

"Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles;..." The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 8:18

I love these opportunities to see how aware Heavenly Father is of me. He really does know me and wants what is best for me. We are all put through trials in our life. Some small like misplacing a simple travel drive, others larger like losing loved ones or feelings of loneliness. As we turn to Him at times of need he helps us! These times are here not to punish us, but to polish us! I have learned that we all have these Mountains to Climb, we have difficulties to hurdle, we have bad days to get past and we can do it with his help! Especially with prayer. Lots and LOTS of prayer! 

He knows us. I promise you that. Turn to him and see for yourself 

:)

Our Purpose.

  As a missionary I have a purpose. That purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

My FRIENDS :)

 This week I was so fortunate to go on an amazing exchange with these lovely Sisters!
Sister Ibuyan, my darling Filipino friend, and Sister Beaudette, the most amazing jump roper I have ever met, and I spent a whole 24 hours together.
This experience really helped me to love my purpose as a missionary even more than I already did! 

These sisters are currently working in a new ward. They are doing something called "white washing" which means that they are brand new missionaries to the area they work in. Usually one companion will stay and a new one will come and show them around and such, but in this case they are both starting from scratch. Over my mission I have had the experience of white washing about 5 different times. It can be stressful, but turning to the Lord always helps!

While we were on our little exchange we saw SO many miracles! We had a focus to talk and contact as many people as possible and build their faith right away. Each person we talked with we bore testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel. 

One amazing experience I want to share is with this lady we went to see. She had talked with missionaries before and then randomly just stopped talking with them. Being new in an area is a perfect time to go see all these people who just stopped communicating with missionaries before. As we talked with her we learned how much she desired to learn about this gospel and how much of an impact her new knowledge of prayer has been for her recently. As we shared our simple testimonies in her home I know I felt her trust growing not only in us, but in the message we share! I am excited to hear what happens as she continues to make changes and finds happiness in this gospel.

Missionary Fun

I really needed this exchange. Recently I have been on one of those emotional roller coasters. I know I am meant to be here in Mesa, Arizona for a reason. Being with these sisters helped me see how no matter how difficult the situation can be we can really put it all in the Lords hands. Not only was it an amazing spiritual boost for me, but a lot of fun. After all, it is missionary FUN, not just missionary work!

Sister Ibuyan said something to me during this day that really meant a lot. She said "You are just so natural with a name tag". As a missionary I have a name tag. It has the Lords name right under my own. I feel it is natural to be this missionary only because I KNOW what I am sharing IS TRUE. If I was unsure, if I had doubt, if I was confused it would be different. I know it is true because I have asked about it. The gospel of Jesus Christ invites us ALL to learn and decide if it is true or not. It is up to us and I love that :)

TRANSFERS...

Here on the mission we are moved around every 6 weeks or so to work with new companions and in new areas. I joke around saying the tension is worse than Christmas! We do not decide where we are going, The Lord does. At Christmas you know something new is coming and usually you can see the box it is wrapped up in. You can pick it up and shake it and sometimes guess what will be in store for you. Transfers is not that way. At all.... There is no telling what is in store for you. It gets pretty crazy.

What usually happens is the Mission President along with two missionaries, his assistants, look at the mission as a whole. They see how many missionaries are out, how many are coming into the mission, where the churches are, the populations of the towns, all sorts of logistical things. After looking over the mission as a whole they pray to know where all the missionaries need to be. They pray to know what to do! Decisions are made and prayer continues to play a huge role in the making of transfers. 

Once that is done calls are made and the missionaries find out where they will be. Usually we have the call on Saturday night and Wednesday morning we are packed and moving areas. 

This transfer Sister Avanesjan and I were preparing ourselves to be split up. Staying together for 3 transfers is not very common, especially for sisters who only serve missions for a total of 12 transfers. 

The Super Awesome Sisters :)

To our surprise and joy we are staying together another transfer!!! :) we are so blessed. "This is miracle" as my companion would say. We get along so well. The spirit is with us as we testify to the truth of what one another has said.

Not only do we have strong spiritual experiences, but we have a LOT of fun!!! She even lets me sing songs to her as we sleep! At times we laugh so hard the wonderful family we live with comes into our room just to make sure everything is okay :) Then the little girl asks Sister Avanesjan to read a book to her that happens to be in a foreign language... Sadly Russian is one that she can not read in!

This new transfer will bring a lot of changes! We are happy to stay together, but it is bitter sweet due to the fact that we are losing one of our wards we have been serving in for the last 3 months. We will miss all of the people we have come to love in the Valley View ward, but we know that the Lord needs us to serve someplace else. 

Let the miracles continue!

With Faith comes Miracles

I have been serving a mission for about 10 months and I am still amazed with each miracle that we are able to see!

Being a Visitors' Center sister is such a blessing because I have the opportunity to work with people from all around the world! We call, facebook, skype, and even facetime people to invite them to come closer to Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel.

Just this month alone we have seen four friends of ours become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! These people all exercised faith in acting upon what the believed to be true by repenting and being baptized and confirmed a member of this church. 

Our Father in Heaven really loves us! He continues to work miracles! I love how it is all according to OUR faith! Not anybody around us, but our own faith.

"He manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith." (2 Nephi 26:13)

 

After we enter the waters of baptism we are not finished! It is important to set our eyes on something more, something that can bring us eternal joy and happiness. That something is the Temple! I am blessed to see this beautiful building each day of the mission. It does nothing but increase me understanding of the wonderful Plan of Happiness our Father in Heaven has put forth for us to learn about here on earth. I know as our sights are set upon entering this house of the Lord we are truly "enduring to the end". By doing so we can each be blessed with eternal life! 

Remember, It all starts with faith!

Love it!

 I LOVE this! God works on our prayers each and every day. Even if we do not feel answers, he is always there for us. This quote was shared with me by a friend of mine and it really struck me! So many people do not know the existence of God and that may be simply because they have not asked!

In The Book of Mormon there is a man who really wants to know if God is really there. His actually is talking to a missionary whose name is Aaron. Aaron tells this man that inorder for him to know God he has to ask if he is there. That is exactly what this man does. He prays!

 He says, "O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day..." (Alma 22:18). 

Well to make this amazing story short it turns out that he comes to know God exists. Not only does he know that, but he knows that he is loved by a loving Heavenly Father, he knows that he can have eternal happiness by following him and learning of Jesus Christ. He knows so much! All because of a simple little prayer. 

I KNOW from the bottom of my heart that our prayers are answered each and every day! I look back on my life and see countless times that answers came to me and I didn't even know it! People were put into my life, events took place, hearts were changed. All things done because I asked and God truly worked on my prayers! If he answers mine he can answer yours! What a beautiful thing to know we are never EVER alone!

Reading this I realized I used a TON of !!s. I do that because I am so excited about this message. Try it out. Pray. See what happens! Let me know how it goes :) Love you all!

The Will of God

The B sisters :)

This week simply flew by! The last few days I have felt so blessed to have this gospel in my life. I went on an exchange with some wonderful sisters! Sister Brown and Sister Beaudette are fantastic missionaries! We had a lot of fun and worked hard! This work is not just missionary work, but missionary fun :) 

I have been studying a lot recently about the Will of God and being ready and able to act upon what we know He wants us to do. It is hard many times to submit ourselves to do the will of the Lord, but as we do so we can truly find joy in this life. 

Christ himself submitted to the will of our Father although I am sure at times it was difficult to do so. "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30). This is just one example of many instances that Christ turns his will over to the Father. We should delight in doing the Fathers will (Psalms 40:8)! We should have a desire to allow it to transform us (Romans 12:2)! We should understand that without him we are nothing (Alma 26:2), yet with him we have the potential to be everything! 

I personally know it is a difficult thing. I have tried a lot recently to be able to think of only doing that which the Father would have me do, it is hard. Yet it is worth it! Following the example of Jesus Christ and turning to our Heavenly Father in all things allows us to enter the kingdom of our Father!!! (Matthew 7:21). What a blessing that will be :)

Always a beautiful view

"Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, because it is not of myself that I know these things; but behold, I know that these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be." -Helaman 7:29

Temple Time!

At the House of the Lord

Today was such an amazing day! We had the chance to go to the Temple. Inside of the temple members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are able to learn more about the wonderful plan that our Heavenly Father has put forth for us to be a part! I always learn so much when I am at the temple. After the temple I am always so happy because I feel the spirit so strong. I am just so happy :)

It was actually raining as we went to the temple today! Such a wonderful feeling!

With my Beautiful companion :)

TEMPLE

"Literally the house of the Lord." 

-The Guide to the Scriptures

Some of the Elders in the zone.

I ran into my cousin Travis :)

 I have been blessed to always have a temple close to me. In Oregon the Portland temple was only a 10 minute drive. Now I see the Mesa Temple Each day! Some people, however, live miles and miles away from temples. Yet they give so much to be able to make it there because they truly know it is the house of the Lord.

Temples are a Beacon --This is a fantastic short little clip about how important temples are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love the Temple :)